हामी सबैकाे संसारन्यूज

31 May, New Delhi : Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi who was sworn-in as the country’s head of government for the second consecutive term on Thursday, announced on Friday the portfolios allocated to his new council of ministers.

According to an official communique issued Friday, former Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar will be the country’s new external affairs minister, while Rajnath Singh will be the new defence minister. Amit Shah, who is also president of main ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), was named home minister (Internal Security) and Nirmala Sitharaman will hold the responsibility of new finance minister.

Besides Modi, Indian President Ram Nath Kovind administered the oath of office and secrecy to a total of 57 ministers, including 24 cabinet ministers, nine junior ministers with independent charge, and 24 junior ministers who will assist the cabinet ministers in the day-to-day functioning of the Union Government.

The maximum of nine ministers were sworn-in from Uttar Pradesh, which is the country’s biggest state in terms of parliamentary constituencies. It has 80 parliamentary constituencies out of which 63 were won by the BJP in the just-concluded general elections.